4th of July Dessert – Red, White and Blue Tie-Dye Cake

This Red, White and Blue Tie-Dye Cake made for the 4th of July is the love child, so to speak, of two very popular cakes that I shared with you in the past few weeks, the Melting Rainbow Cake and the Rainbow Tie-Dye Surprise Cake.This baby was born out of so much love, from you the readers, that is.

It’s always my hope that when I bring life to a project that it will be accepted and cherished, and dare I say, popular.

I honestly never know how people will respond to my creations, but am overjoyed when I produce something that really strikes a chord with people, and these cakes certainly have.

Can you see the family resemblance?

Both of the bright colorful cakes were created for my gig over at Tablespoon.com. Being able to share my work on the Tablespoon site, opens my projects up to a much larger audience than my own. Collectively those cakes have been seen by millions of people, which is unbelievably amazing. They are the most popular projects I’ve created.

This is all pretty exciting for me.

That excitement couldn’t be contained.

I couldn’t resist getting back into the kitchen and playing around with the techniques used to create those two cakes.

The next big holiday here is the 4th of July, so this new cake is red, white and blue. It may not be as pretty as rainbows, but it’s what we have to work for this holiday, and the colors really do play nicely with each other. They look pretty striking on this cake.

This was actually my second attempt at making a patriotic cake. The first was, well …

muddy looking on top and too drippy on the sides.

There were, however aspects of this cake that were amazing. I loved the red, white and blue tie-dye interior, maybe even more so than the rainbow colors.

But, what made this cake for me, was the flavor. I have to say it’s the best cake I’ve ever made.

Many readers asked if the tie-dye cake could be made using white cake mix instead of pound cake, I had to try it, but I was tired of plain cake, so I chose to doctor it up. I used a Betty Crocker Coconut Cake recipe and loved the nice subtle coconut flavor of the cake.

The recipe called for a white chocolate coconut flavored frosting. I had a bag of Wilton’s Coconut Candy Melts and decided to pump up the coconut flavor by using them in place of the white chocolate called for in the recipe.

The resulting frosting was spectacular – best coconut buttercream I’ve ever tasted. I love coconut, but have to admit that sometimes the texture of it is bothersome. This frosting has all the amazing flavor, but none of the grit from the coconut flakes.

I covered the delicate coconut cake with this unbelievably rich and creamy coconut frosting then topped it all off with colorful ganache. The colors are vibrant and bright and make a wonderful 4th of July dessert.

I usually give my cakes away to friends and neighbors, but this one I wanted to keep all to myself. When I told my husband I wasn’t happy with the look of the first cake, he laughed and told me I just wanted to make another one so I could eat it too. I think he was right.UPDATE:

Here’s my latest version of the cake. I made this cake for Valentine’s Day.

*Wilton’s Coconut Candy Melts are a limited edition and are only available for a short time, which is so sad. I’ve stocked up on them and will be making more treats using them soon. So, if you want to try this unbelievably amazing frosting, you need to do it this summer, before the Coconut Candy melts are all gone. I found them at Michael’s, but they also an be purchased from Wilton.com. If you can’t find them, just use white candy melts and add 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract to intensify the flavor, if you like. You can even stir in some sweetened coconut.

**You can use a regular 9 inch loaf pan, if you don’t have a long one. The shape of the cake will be different, but will look pretty cool too.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 for dark non-stick pans)

Either line loaf pan with non-stick tin foil or grease with shortening and dust with flour or spray with non-stick flour baking spray. I prefer the tin foil. It’s easy and clean.

Combine cake mix with egg whites, water and coconut milk. Beat on low for 30 seconds, then beat on high for 2 minutes.

Finely chop the coconut, using a mini food processor or knife.

Fold coconut into cake batter.

Divide batter in half. Pour half into a large 18 inch pastry bag or two smaller bags. Divide remaining batter among two bowls. Color one red and one blue. Pour red batter into a pastry bag and blue into another bag.

Pipe a small amount of blue batter in a squiggly pattern into pan. Pipe on some white then some red. Repeat until all the batter is gone.You have twice as much white so that it actually shows through.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick poked into the center of the cake comes out clean.I used Wilton Cake Bands to make sure the cake baked evenly. They keep the sides from browning too much which is especially nice with this cake, so you see more red, white and blue.

Allow the cake to cool completely. Level the cake by cutting off any cake that is domed on top. Cut a cake board so that it is 1/4 inch bigger on all sides of your cake. Set cake on board. I found it best to flip the cake upside down. That way I had a nice smooth surface to frost.

Make the frosting. Pour Wilton Coconut Candy Melts in a microwave safe bowl. Heat on high for 30 seconds. Let sit in microwave for 1 minute, then stir. Heat again on high for 25 seconds, let rest 1 minute, then stir. If not completely melted heat on high for 10 second increments, stirring after each until melted.

Pour powdered sugar, room temperature coconut milk, butter. Add hot coconut candy melts, stir to combine, then beat on medium speed until the frosting becomes light and fluffy.Note: If any of your ingredients are cold or the candy melts stick to the sides of your bowl, your candy melts can harden and form little hard bits in your frosting. Try to pour the candy melts into the ingredients so they don’t touch the sides. If you end up with hard bits in your frosting, gently warm it in the microwave to allow them to melt, then beat until fluffy.

Frost cake immediately, reserving about 2 tablespoons of frosting for later. This frosting will become stiff quickly, so don’t dawdle.

You want a nice smooth surface on the cake. I used a Wilton Icing Smoother, and it worked great. I also filled a tall glass with hot water and dipped my metal spatula in the water, dried it, then spread it over the top and sides of the cake. The hot spatula slightly melted the frosting, smoothing it out nicely.

Arrange 5-7 small star shaped cookie cutters over the top of the cake. Gently press them into the frosting just far enough that they will keep the ganache from seeping underneath.

Make red and blue ganache. Pour 2 ounces of the colored candy melts into a small bowl, pour on 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream and 2 teaspoons corn syrup. Microwave on high power for 25 seconds, let sit in microwave for 1-2 minutes then stir. If not all melted heat on high for 10 second increments until melted.You want the ganache to be thin enough to drip but not so thin that it just drips off the side of the cake, so you may need to allow it to cool slightly. As you are working, you may need to warm it slightly, also.

Start at one end of the cake an drizzle on some blue, then some red, then blue, and red, until you’ve made your way all around the cake. Once you’ve added dribbles to the side of the cake, fill in the top, being sure you don’t dribble any ganache inside the star shaped cookie cutters.

Allow the ganache to harden, then remove the cutters.

Pour reserved coconut frosting into a zip top bag. Snip the tip off and pipe over the stars.

Just a note: you can skip using the star cutters and just pipe the stars on yourself. I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to add any extra frosting but I when I removed the cutters the edges of the stars were jagged, so I added the frosting. It was nice to just pipe over the shape, but you can just pipe them on over the blue and red ganache, if you prefer.

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Hi Beth – I love that you failed the first time around. Ok let me back up… as an average baker at best, it's sometimes intimidating to go to a food blogger's professional blog and think… wow I could never do that. But then to see that you are normal too… WOW. THANK YOU!!! That was supposed to be a huge compliment!!! Anyhoo… I love love love both the tie dye and the patriotic cakes. I think I may even be able to follow your directions. Thanks so much and happy day! Hugs, Holly

Hi Holly, having one flop is nothing compared to what I went through this week. I had an assignment to make a cake for Tablespoon, spent 4 day, went through 12 cake mixes, had cake batter ooze all over my oven, had two mixes go straight into the trash after mistakenly adding egg yolks, then when I was about to give up hope it worked and I finally got an amazing cake done! Some things go smoothly and other times you just have disaster after disaster.

It happens to everyone. I hope I give you the courage to try something new and fun in the kitchen. The best thing about all my flops is there was a lot of cake to give to family and friends. The reject cakes may not have looked like I needed them too, but they tasted good and everyone enjoyed them. So, don't be afraid to try something. It's only food:)

Hello Hungry Happenings!! I know I always say this..but your treats are always amazing! All of your tie-dye cakes are really cool, but I also like the red/white/blue colors best. I've made a few coconut treats for my blog and the coconut flavor usually wins over the real coconut. (i ate an entire tupperware cupful of coconut as a kid and can barely tolerate it now..except for Mounds)

Plus, the "progressive photos" feature you put together is awesome! Happy 4th!

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Add me to your list, I love these cakes. I haven’t even tasted one yet but, I love the way they look. I’m going to make it on Memorial Day. If everyone likes it, I’m thinking about making it my “go to” cake recipe anytime the family get together. All I’ve got to do is, dream up two or three colors that match whatever is going on. Thanks for the great cake recipe.

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